Very loud popping -occasionally with wheels turned

I'm kind of at a loss - nothing shows up on visual inspection but when I'm turning the wheels borderline sharply and giving any throttle I get a pop/bang as if it's still in 4wd maybe? It happens most of the time on uneven surfaces - could it be a broken coil/strut? Sway bar looks fine - one of the steering arms has some grease on it - but I think it's from when I tore a CV. I had the wheels up today and they didn't seem loose (like a wheel bearing problem) - there was some play - barely - top to bottom. but not side to side.

I've seen where the skid plate can cause popping/banging - so I removed it to see what I see. Any other tips/directions where I can further diagnose?

 

Are the lower control arm bolts good and tight?
If they a “loose” they can cause a pop. The6 need to be tight. Like tight..tight.

How the ball joints looking?

 

CVs if ripped and no grease left could make the noise.
Bad strut/shock inside the spring or loose nuts on the top mount under hood.
But if at full steering stops then could simply be the stops metal on metal so you can grease the stop and then no noise (or don't crank the steering over fully).

 

Grab the center section of your CV axle and shake it. Any play?

 

Thank you! I hadn't thought about the LCAs. Ball joints are good - one thing I noticed but thought my eyes were out of calibration - but seems like my passenger side wheel sits a little closer to the back of the fender when turned - it's like there's less ground clearance. I'll get under and check the cam bolts, then schedule an alignment if things are wonky.

CVs are in perfect shape, visually.
I'll double-tap those bolts thank you. Could it be a broken spring? I haven't seen anything but I can't see the back of it.

I'll do that. Thank you.

 

My truck would pop when turning the wheels sometimes. But most of the time it was when going in reverse. It started shortly after an alignment. I looked for ever and couldn’t find an issue. Finally I came across one post here on TW where a guy had just done LCA and had the same issue.

Crawled under and cranked down on the bolts. That fixed my problem.

I have lifetime alignment. And sure enough, the next time I had the alignment done. Same issue. I now tell the guys to double check and CRANK DOWN on those bolts.

I don’t know if they follow torque specs or not. If so, the 100 ft/lbs isn’t enough.

 

Thank you so much. I'll crawl under the truck tonite and see what I see.

 

Something tells me I found the problem. 11 month old CVJ with no wheeling; just about 50 miles in the snow.

https://youtube.com/shorts/xarY8yoFegY

Unsure if I should buy from them again.

 

looks like you found the problem.
Wow, that’s not good at all.

 

Oh - maybe 5000 miles on the axle. Likely less. One 1500 mile round trip, and then to and from work.

 

Looks like either the shaft broke or a circlip broke in the outer joint.

 

That’s a new one for me to see…

 

New details - I thought I had two cvj axles in the truck - had only the one; the other one. This is likely an autozone-type axle from 2021 timeframe

 

Changing the CV didn't fix the issue. When I brake and sometimes turn, it sounds like i'm snapping an axle - that kind of bang/pop. I think next i'll replace the brake calipers, and grease the driveshaft and u-bolts.

 

If I didn’t find the problem I found something contributing

https://youtube.com/shorts/0ZEpShP57YI?si=mvGKcOKpQg1z5JcA

 

I agree, that doesn’t look good there…

 

Tightened it - but no torque wrench so erred toward too loose. Drive down to get the mail and back - truck was fine….except….right at the end. One pop/bang but 1/3 as loud as before. I am on the path. Will torque both sides. As an aside, I was dumb when checking them before (grabbed the Lca and tried to shake it) - I did it with the wheels mounted. Removing the wheel made the difference because obviously hanging there it’s easier to shake thatswhatshesaid. The popping could have been the cams spinning and then popping down over the metal stoppers.

more to follow but am sure this is the right path to getting it fixed

 

Good luck!

 

To put a bow on this - I re-torqued the bolts on the LCA and the truck drives perfectly. However, there's damage to the little tabs that hold the cam, so I'm going to need something to get that sorted. But the popping/banging is gone.

 

Greta to hear things are mostly good. I bought new hardware a while back for mine from @ForestRunnerFrank99 and KPO Off-road. Might be worth checking out. If the tabs are not broken, you should be able to bend them back. If use use the octagon plates you probably won’t have to worry about them again. New bolts also mean no seizing of the bushings. https://kpoffroad.com/product/best-alignment-cam-upgrade-kit-cam-eliminator